IMGR29 (2)

GILDING AND TECHNIQUES OF DECORATION

Embossino

One of ibe qucstions about gmiameci thac demandi an answer is why, when and whcrc thc changc was madę from tawed hair-sheep skin to vegetable-canncd shecp or calf skin, for that there was a changc in the typcoflcaiher employcd for hangings is ccrtain. Although the French mainuined a ban until 1350 on thc use of corduan which was cvcn partially tanned, by 1380 tanned corduan was in usc for royal hangings.¹

Ali the cmbosscd hangings recently examined, nonę of which is much earlier dun the late siztcenth century, are of vegctable tanned leather,* as would be cxpcctcd whether the embossing was done by the earlier process with heated metal platcs, or the latcr one employing wooden moulds and damped leather; but ocunt guadamcciet of the preccding kind, with fiat, hand-stamped surfaces, are also madę of vegetablc-tanncd sheepskin. Herc, perhaps, is a due to the changc. Tawcd shecp or goat skin, a pan from the likdihood of injury by the proccsscs employcd, would not be amenable to embossing, neither would stamping bc lasting becausc of thc softness of the kather. Vcgetabłe-tanned sheepskin would be much better in this rcspcct, akhough not ideał, and this we know the French uscd right up io thc cightccnth century by which dme Flandcn and Holland used, predominandy, calfśkin, a much superior materia). The useofan interior leather may havc contributcd to the dtrfme of the French industzy. It is, bowcvcr, elear from the French ordinancc of 1350 already refered to,* that there was until then strong prcjudice against *Cordovan’ leather that was evcn partially tanned (a ‘combrnarion* tannage). for the ordinancc in question with drew a prcvious!y imposed prohibirion (not traced) in the following terms: ‘Whereas in former umes there was, in Paris, great abundancc of Spanish corduan which was better drested than any other, the import of Flemith corduan was forbtiden on the gromi that it bod beat in part proettted with ton, it has [now] bccn found that thc said Flemish leathers are good and profiuble for use in the city of Paris and else-where etc/ It is therefore rcuonabić to conjccture that, oncc approval had been accorded to sheepskin leather produced by a combination tannage in which vcgctable tanning played a part togcthćr with tawing, thc way was open to the adopuon of a fuli vcgctable tannage and also to the use of bovinc leather, patticularly calf which was morę advan-Ugeous in many ways; also that it was during the foutteenth century that hand-stamping

' Inv. Chaikt V, )Ui, *6 carroux de cuir unnó ouvri i or*.

* In Spoin rndomiiuntly ofhair iheepikin; elwwhere mainly of bovinc ipeda: in sonie ca ki ihe Intlw appeus to bc ihnved aduk eonie hidc but in thrcc eiumpks microicopially eumined by thc Bricuh Latha Monufocuwn’ Rmucb Auociation (one Dutch. the othen pouibly Enghth and oll of the łcvemecnth ccntuty) ynobleomcl ciłfilin wat (bund.

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